Firm Profile

Selendy Gay PLLC

USA Guide 2023

Ranked departments
Ranked lawyers
USA

Selendy Gay PLLC

Selendy Gay PLLC

Contact number

212 390 9000

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About

Provided by Selendy Gay PLLC
USA

Founding Partners: Faith Gay, Jennifer Selendy, and Philippe Selendy

Managing Partner: Maria Ginzburg

Number of partners: 16

Number of associates: 60

Firm Overview:

Selendy Gay, a premiere litigation firm, is dedicated to the most challenging commercial disputes, public interest matters, and investigations. Its partners and associates have well-earned reputations for bold solutions and trial readiness.

Selendy Gay’s lawyers are trial and appellate generalists, able to take on litigation matters across an array of industries and subject areas, including bankruptcy, complex commercial litigation, securities and structured finance, corporate defense and investigations, corporate governance, arbitration, and many others.

Since the firm was founded in 2018, it has maintained its focus on inclusivity and diversity. Almost fifty percent of Selendy Gay’s equity is held by female partners, and more than twenty percent of the firm’s attorneys identify as LGBTQ+.

A hallmark of the firm is its even split between plaintiff and defense side work, which allows Selendy Gay to deploy winning strategies on both sides of the “v.” As plaintiffs’ counsel, the firm has pioneered claims, and even practice areas, that have recovered more than $46 billion for clients while holding institutional giants accountable. As defense counsel, the firm has won bet-the-company cases that threatened the existence of its clients’ businesses and business models, vindicated individuals in aggressive white-collar prosecutions, and counseled clients successfully in fast-moving investigations.

Central to the firm's success is its willingness to take cases to trial, when necessary. Its attorneys have tried dozens of cases to verdict in state and federal courts across the nation and arbitrated many cases through to award, often stepping in to handle distressed cases at trial or on appeal. The firm's experience brings its clients better courtroom results and better settlements because its adversaries have no doubt of the courtroom threat the firm poses.

Selendy Gay is known for its dedication to the public good. The firm’s public interest and pro bono litigation victories are as significant as those on the commercial side, and they stem from the firm’s foundational commitment to holding public interest work as equally important to commercial cases. In June 2022, Chambers recognized Selendy Gay as its “Outstanding Firm for Pro Bono” in the United States, as well as partner Jennifer Selendy as “Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year.” The firm’s attorneys average 145 pro bono hours annually, compared to the industry average of 55.


Representative Experience:

  • Cerberus Capital Management, a leading private equity firm, in a breach of contract action against the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), one of Canada’s largest banks. The dispute centers on two complex structured finance transactions backed by credit default swaps, CDOs, and RMBS. Selendy Gay argued a successful appeal in which the First Department agreed with Cerberus’ interpretation of the agreements and held that CIBC’s contrary interpretation was “unmoored” from the contracts. In December 2022, Justice Cohen resolved all liability issues in Cerberus’s favor following a two-week bench trial against CIBC. After a subsequent damages hearing and related decision that rejected nearly all of CIBC’s damages arguments, the New York Supreme Court – on February 6, 2023 – entered judgment for Cerberus for $855 million.
  • An ad hoc group of term lenders, in New York Supreme Court, alleging defendants TriMark, its equity sponsors, and several of its other lenders violated the governing credit agreement by issuing new senior debt that effectively turned plaintiffs’ first-lien debt into third-lien debt and by issuing new “super senior” debt without inviting plaintiffs to participate. Plaintiffs alleged that the credit agreement did not allow defendants to amend it without their consent or to strip them of their pro rata and priority payment rights. In August 2021, the Court rejected defendants’ motions to dismiss plaintiffs’ contract claims. In January 2022, the parties settled the case, with TriMark allowing the former first-lien lenders to exchange their debt for new “super senior” debt and to pay all lenders’ attorneys’ fees.
  • Public service workers, members of the American Federation of Teachers union, in a settlement of a nationwide class action lawsuit with Navient, one of the nation’s largest student loan servicers, challenging Navient’s practices with respect to advising federal student loan borrowers on Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Selendy Gay secured approval of a novel class settlement under which Navient agreed, among other things, to forgive the loans of all named plaintiffs, to enhance its practices for public service workers (teachers, nurses, legal aid workers, firemen and policemen, for example) and, in addition, to contribute millions to a nonprofit organization that provides education and student loan counseling to public service workers. Selendy Gay successfully secured a unanimous affirmance of the approval on appeal in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In April 2023, the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari in two objector petitions in our Navient case, bringing the litigation to an end and allowing the terms of the settlement to become effective.
  • Mutual fund shareholders who purchased, sold, or liquidated mutual fund shares managed by Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC's Structured Property Groups from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2020. Selendy Gay secured a $145 million settlement for the mutual fund shareholders.
  • Working with Legal Aid Society, Selendy Gay defended the rent stabilization laws that protect hundreds of thousands of tenants in New York State, helping families stay in their homes and securing their right to have their voices heard in court. In 2020 and 2021, the firm successfully obtained dismissals of the five suits at the district court level. In 2022 and 2023, we defended all five dismissals on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and secured favorable rulings in three of the appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court said it will not review one of the Second Circuit’s three rulings in October 2023, and has not yet decided whether to review the Second Circuit’s other two rulings. The Second Circuit has not yet issued decisions in the remaining two appeals.
  • SJP Properties, a New York-based real estate developer, in obtaining a unanimous reversal from the Appellate Division, First Department of a trial court decision ordering SJP to tear down numerous floors of its residential building at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The New York Court of Appeals subsequently denied the challengers’ motion for leave to appeal, bringing the lengthy battle to a close.

Practice Areas:

  • Antitrust
  • Appellate
  • Arbitration
  • Bankruptcy & Insolvency
  • Class Actions
  • Complex Commercial Disputes
  • Consumer & Healthcare Products
  • Corporate Defense and Investigations
  • Corporate Governance & Shareholder Rights
  • Environmental Litigation
  • Executive Crisis Management & Employment Disputes
  • Insurance
  • Nonprofits & Not-for-Profits
  • Private Equity & Hedge Funds
  • Public Interest & Pro Bono
  • Securities & Structured Finance

Ranked Offices

Provided by Selendy Gay PLLC

USA - Head office

Selendy Gay PLLC rankings

USA Guide 2023
Filter by
Band
New York
Bankruptcy/Restructuring
1 Ranked Lawyer
Lawyers
Kelley Cornish
3
Kelley Cornish
3
Band 3
Litigation: General Commercial
1 Ranked Lawyer
Lawyers
2
Faith Elizabeth Gay
2
Band 2
Litigation: General Commercial: Highly Regarded
1 Department
Department
Litigation: General Commercial: Highly Regarded
3
Litigation: General Commercial: Highly Regarded
3
Band 3
Litigation: Securities
1 Ranked Lawyer
Lawyers
4
Philippe Z Selendy
4
Band 4
Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations
1 Ranked Lawyer
Lawyers
5
Faith Elizabeth Gay
5
Band 5
Securities: Institutional Plaintiffs: Mainly RMBS Litigation
1 Department
1 Ranked Lawyer
Department
Securities: Institutional Plaintiffs: Mainly RMBS Litigation
1
Securities: Institutional Plaintiffs: Mainly RMBS Litigation
1
Band 1
Lawyers
1
Philippe Z Selendy
1
Band 1
USA - Nationwide
Bankruptcy/Restructuring
1 Ranked Lawyer
Lawyers
Kelley Cornish
4
Kelley Cornish
4
Band 4
Securities: Litigation: Mainly Plaintiff
1 Department
Department
Securities: Litigation: Mainly Plaintiff
3
Securities: Litigation: Mainly Plaintiff
3
Band 3